Resco Inspections on Dynamics 365

Resco Inspections can be combined with your Dataverse/Dynamics 365/Dynamics CRM organization and grant you access to powerful checklists and questionnaires.

Enabling Resco Inspections

Woodford solution

To enable and use the Resco Inspections functionalities within Dynamics 365/CRM, first it is necessary to download and import the Woodford solution into your Dynamics 365/CRM instance. Woodford solution is a custom Dynamics 365/CRM managed solution developed and maintained by Resco that contains all the Resco components, including the Resco Inspections tools.

More information on how to install the latest version of Woodford into Dynamics 365/CRM can be found here.

New app project

The next step is to open the Woodford configuration tool in Dynamics 365/CRM settings and create a new app project using the “Inspector” project template – this is a project specifically designed for the inspection use case; Resco Inspections feature is already enabled here.

Note	If you already use the Resco technology and have an existing/customized app project in Woodford, go to the next chapter to see how to enable Resco Inspections in an existing app project.

Detailed steps for Dynamics 365 Online:

1. In the web browser (we suggest using Chrome) log into your Dynamics 365 organization and switch to the Resco Suite app.
   
2. Click Woodford to open the Woodford tool.
   
3. Select App Projects from the Administration menu, then click New to start the New Project Wizard.
4. In the wizard, set Type to "Standard User" and choose the Inspector template from the gallery, then click Next.
   
5. Enter New App Name (e.g., "Inspector App") and click Next.
   
6. In the last step, enter the name of your project (e.g., "Inspector Project"), select the security role(s) this project will be associated with and click Create.
   
7. Finally, open the new app project and publish it.
   

Now you can go to the Questionnaire Designer and create a questionnaire template.

Existing app project

In case you already use the Resco technology, have an existing/customized app project in Woodford, and want to enable the Resco Inspections functionality, follow these steps:

1. In Woodford, edit your app project and select Inspections from the Project menu.
   
2. Check Enable Inspections and confirm that you have the appropriate license, then click Save.
   
3. If you want to add the Inspections section to the Home screen, click Add To Home.
4. If you want to add the Inspections section to any entity form (e.g. Appointment), click Add To Form.
5. If you want to install a generic Automatic Report, click Install Report.
6. Optionally, install some sample questionnaire templates via the Questionnaire Designer tool.
   
7. Save all the changes and publish the app project.

Questionnaire Designer

To create your own custom inspection templates, checklists, or questionnaires, you need to open the tool called Questionnaire Designer. Just like Woodford, it is a web-based configurator tool included in the Woodford solution, so you only need a web browser (we suggest using Chrome); there is no need to install anything else.

Detailed steps for Dynamics 365 Online:

1. In the web browser, log into your Dynamics 365 organization and switch to the Resco Suite app.
   
2. Select Inspections and start the Questionnaire Designer tool.
   
3. New window with the Questionnaire Designer opens. Click either the New button or the New Questionnaire link to start the New Questionnaire Wizard.
   
   A quick overview of the Questionnaire Designer’s capabilities can be found later in this article; more comprehensive information are here.
4. When your finish your new template, click Save & Close.
5. In the Questionnaires List select the draft of your template and click Activate.
   

Your template is now active and ready to be used in the mobile app.

Mobile app

Finally, it is necessary to download the Resco Inspections mobile app on your device via the corresponding application store and synchronize it with your Dynamics 365/CRM organization.

Note	If you already use the standard Resco Mobile CRM “blue” app with your Dynamics 365/CRM organization and you enabled Resco Inspections in your existing app project, you don’t have to switch to the Resco Inspections mobile app. The “blue” app fully supports all the Resco Inspections features.

Designing the questionnaire

Building a new custom questionnaire template from scratch based on the specific requirements might be a complex task that requires multiple steps – we recommend you perform them in the following order:

Create structure

In general, the questionnaire template can consist of multiple root-level questions, question groups, and group-level questions. There is no limit on the number of groups or questions within the template.

The following types of components can be added to the questionnaire template (more information can be found here):

• Main: simple and repeatable groups of questions
• Static Components: their content cannot be modified by the mobile user performing the inspection
• Questions: simple and complex types of input
• Special: Regarding Lookup question is used to store the reference of the entity record from which the corresponding questionnaire has been opened by the mobile user

Note	When adding a new group or question into your template, carefully define not only its label (i.e., what the mobile user sees in the app) but also the technical name – this must be unique within the template and will appear in the Rules Editor when building a custom business logic.

Enable scoring

You can use the native Scoring feature to evaluate each answered questionnaire based on the value of the answers.

Define styles

To make the questionnaire more appealing to the mobile user, you can change the appearance of each question by using the Form Styles.

• create and define your custom style within the styles library
• assign the custom style to the corresponding question

Add custom business logic

To make the questionnaire more interactive and dynamic for the mobile user, you can add a custom business logic with different levels of complexity.

Smart question properties

Simple rules that allow you to easily control some properties of the groups or questions

Smart default values

Configure a default value to save time for the inspector in the field

Rules

More complex root-level or group-level rules managed within the Rules Designer

JavaScript

The most advanced logic that cannot be covered by smart properties or rules can be written in JavaScript

Add custom commands

You can manage the existing or create new custom commands together with the custom business logic via the Commands section (more information).

Configure localization

Each questionnaire template can be translated into multiple languages (more information).

Add branding

You can brand your new questionnaire template by adding a company logo (a static component of the questionnaire) and specifying the questionnaire’s icon (in questionnaire properties).

Enable versioning

To manage different versions of the same questionnaire template and have access to its older versions, you can enable the Versioning feature (more information).

Opening the questionnaire in the mobile app

There are multiple ways how the mobile user can open the questionnaire template within the Resco mobile app; some of them require advanced customization and configuration in the Woodford project.

See Adding questionnaires to app projects for various integration options.

Mobile reports on questionnaires

Usually, as a final step of the inspection, maintenance, repair, or survey, the mobile user needs to generate an output that is shared with the customer or the back-office workers.

You can either set up your reports directly in the Questionnaire Designer together with the questionnaire template; or, for more complex use cases, use a standalone tool, Report Designer.

See Mobile reports for Resco Inspections to learn more about these approaches.

Generating reports from completed questionnaires

Generating a mobile report is easy: simply select the option Complete with a Report when finishing a questionnaire.

Reviewing questionnaires in Dynamics

Resco Inspections provide several tools that allow the back-office user to review the answered and completed questionnaires directly within the Dynamics 365/CRM user interface.

Result Viewer

Result Viewer is a web-based tool integrated into Dynamics 365/CRM that can be used by the back-office users to review the in-progress or completed questionnaires in a read-only way, filter them by different criteria, and even export the answers into CSV file.

To access the Result Viewer in Dynamics 365, in the web browser (we suggest using Chrome) log into your Dynamics 365 organization and switch to the Resco Suite app.

Go to the Inspections section and open the Result Viewer tool.

• Left panel = filter criteria
• Middle panel = list of in-progress / completed questionnaires
• Right panel = selected questionnaire (read-only)

See Results Viewer for more information.

Result Viewer on entity form

Since the Result Viewer component is a Dynamics web resource developed by Resco and included in the Woodford managed solution, it can be easily placed on any entity form in Dynamics 365/CRM and configured to display the completed questionnaires associated with the specific record.

See Adding completed questionnaires to Dynamics entity forms for instructions.

Questionnaire list, form, and player

The questionnaire is a custom entity that holds questionnaire data. By installing Woodford, you also install a customized list and form for the questionnaire entity and the Questionnaire Player.

Go to the Inspections section and open the list of questionnaires.

The questionnaire list allows you to browse questionnaire templates, snippets, and answered questionnaires.

The questionnaire form displays the details about a template, snippet, or answered questionnaire. The form does NOT include all the questions or answers.

The Questionnaire Player is a Resco-built web resource that displays the answered questionnaire the same way as the Resco mobile app. It is accessible from the questionnaire list or form: simply click Run Player.

• When you start the player from a questionnaire template, you open a brand new questionnaire instance that you can answer.
• When you start the player for an in-progress questionnaire, you can continue answering and complete the questionnaire.
• When you start the player for a completed answered questionnaire, you display a read-only version of the questionnaire.

Note	Questionnaire Player does not support mobile reports. Other limitations apply as well.

Questionnaire Player (alternative access)

Questionnaire Player is integrated out-of-the-box when you install Woodford. It is available from the Questionnaire entity form as described in the previous chapter.

If you are using an older version of Woodford (or for custom integrations) here's the original procedure for adding Questionnaire Player to the Questionnaire entity form as a new tab:

1. In Dynamics 365/CRM go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Entities > Questionnaire > Forms > open the entity form where you want to insert the Questionnaire Player.
2. Go to the INSERT tab and add new one-column tab to the form. Change its label to Questionnaire Player.
3. Select the newly created Questionnaire Player tab and add a web resource resco_MobileCRM/WebClient/index.html. Enter the name and the label.
4. Add a custom parameter qplayer=1 check Pass record object-type code and unique identifier as parameters.
5. Optionally, switch to the Formatting tab and change the Number of Rows to 20. Save and publish the changes.

In Dynamics 365/CRM open any in-progress questionnaire -> switch to the Questionnaire Player tab to review and update the answered incomplete questionnaire:

Resco Inspections data structure

To understand the data structure used to store questionnaire data, see the Resco Inspections data model.

Performance considerations

If you're looking at a large-scale deployment of Resco Inspections, read about the tips and settings that can improve performance.

Custom questionnaire logic via JavaScript

You can employ Resco JavaScript Bridge to add advanced business logic to your questionnaires. See JSBridge for questionnaires to get started.